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Amazon is giving away what amounts to "tens of millions" of dollars worth of virtual currency in a comprehensive effort to generate app downloads on one of the iPad's top rivals - the Kindle Fire.

Every Kindle Fire owner in the U.S. is getting $5 worth of free Coins deposited directly into their Amazon account. As part of the launch, customers can also purchase Coins in bulk and receive a discount up to 10%

For customers, Amazon Coins is an easy way to purchase apps and in-app items on Kindle Fire, and for developers it’s another opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increased monetization.

Amazon is hoping that its Coins will spark a huge wave of purchases for apps, games and in-app items in the Amazon Appstore and on Kindle Fire.

“Today we are giving Kindle Fire owners $5 worth of Coins to spend on new apps and games, or to purchase in-app items, such as recipes in iCookbook, song collections in SongPop or mighty falcon bundles in Angry Birds Star Wars. And with discounts of up to 10% when you buy Coins, this is a great way for customers to save money when they buy apps, games and in-app items,” explains Mike George, Vice President of Apps and Games at Amazon. “We will continue to add more ways to earn and spend Coins on a wider range of content and activities—today is Day One for Coins.”

Amazon says its Appstore developers will earn their standard 70% revenue share when customers make purchases using Amazon Coins.

lol. I have 5 $ now in my account. don't think i want to download lousy apps though.

Matter of fact the AppStore needs to come up with some nice apps as well. I have $125 in my iTunes but no good app to buy that I don't have already. I could shed $30 on Pages, Numbers and the Keynote but don't see the use quite yet.